Following on from the previous post, it must be great to get new gadgets to play with; but I suppose the novelty of it wears off after a bit. When I was younger, the editors of magazines like T3, Computer & Video Games (yeah, I used to read that many, many moons ago) were idols in my eyes. They got the newest gadgets before anyone else, wrote about them and moved on to new toys, whether they be the latest digital camera, computer, TV or mobile phone.
I suppose the biggest problem with being a reviewer is that you don’t actually build a relationship with the gadget you are writing about. You have it for a couple of days, play with the best bits, then move on to the next one. Compare this to owning, say a phone for a couple of years. You know the gadget intimately, know what it likes and doesn’t, you know what I mean. In extreme cases, you even know that when it stops working you can bang it, like so, and it starts working again. I love the latest gadgets, but I think I like familiar gadgets even more. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t refuse a new toy, but I believe that the best reviews come from people who have spent quality time with something, rather than played with it and moved on